A kick-start from Vulcan Engineering

Gerry Quinn, Managing Director of Vulcan Engineering, first heard about Excellent Development and sand dams in 2009. Working in engineering, he was intrigued by the technology and liked what he found out. Since then, Vulcan has become one of our most loyal corporate supporters, funding sand dam projects for three communities in rural southeast Kenya.

The sand dams built by the Kumina Wauni, Ngoloosi and Nzengu Ngomani self-help groups between 2011 and 2013 are already making a big difference. As the dams mature, clean water is made available to community members within 30 minutes from their homes – a vast improvement from the six or more hours spent previously in the search for water.

The company was also keen to get its employees involved, and 2011 eight members of staff travelled out to Kenya to help the Kumina Wauni self-help group build their sand dam. It was a life-changing opportunity, not just for the community, but the volunteers too, who described it as a truly extraordinary and uplifting experience.

"What initially attracted me to Excellent Development was a newspaper article which outlined the concept. From that, I could readily understand the practicality and potential of sand dams and the great progress that Excellent has already made in turning initial ideas into reality."

Gerry Quinn, Managing Director, Vulcan Engineering.

The three sand dams have provided an initial kick start for the three communities. With a little bit of extra training and support, they are now able take their future into their own hands, improving farming methods and diversifying their food production to increase their resilience to droughts and the effects of climate change.

This community-led approach is what attracted Gerry to Excellent Development in the first place.

“To me, particularly given the known problem with aid monies in Africa, it’s far better to give people the opportunity and potential, whereby the initial funding can be multiplied many times over by people's enterprise and efforts, and the real importance of unlocking people’s and communities’ potential, rather than making them reliant upon aid”.

Create lasting change with sand dams - please donate what you can

Please select a donation amount: *

£5could provide a group with the tools, seeds and materials to produce vegetables, fruits and grains

£10could provide expert training and support to empower groups to take ownership of their projects

£20enable a self-help group to build a series of sand dams, bringing abundant water to their families

Supporting people in drylands to build sand dams, which provide a local supply of water, means that less children die each year from curable diarrhoea and women no longer have to bare this burden. Can you help by making a donation that will stop the suffering of communities living in drylands?

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Becky Little and Jason Maddrell helped to build a sand dam on an Excellent expedition in 2012. They returned to lead the Excellent 2016 expedition and visited the same community four years’ on, and were astonished to see how much the area has changed.

The results of a new sand dam are astonishing to see - a green oasis in the midst of a barren and parched landscape. This community has been using the water from the dam for growing vegetables and keeping their livestock healthy.

For rural women in the world’s drylands, life is defined by the burden of collecting water. For the old and the young, the sick and the healthy, it is a chore with no relief. Even when pregnant, women must trek over long distances in order to provide their families with water.

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Read about our plan to directly support other organisations to build sand dams, in turn, realising our vision to support millions of the world’s poorest people by helping them to transform their own lives through water and soil conservation in drylands.